Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs (JCFA)

Strategic Alliances for a Secure, Connected, and Prosperous Region

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Constructive Clarity in Israeli-Palestinian Negotiations

July 7, 2010 | Benny Begin

The PLO platform, as reaffirmed in the Fatah Congress in August 2009, states that their struggle will not stop until the Zionist entity is eliminated and Palestine is liberated. As a logical corollary, they refuse to accept Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people. The Palestinian leadership insists that negotiations now start at the point they had reached with Olmert at the end of 2008. That means they are not satisfied with what was put on the table a year ago. They want more than that

Palestinian Priorities After Arafat: Palestinian Unity or Peace?

November 30, 2004 | Lt. Col. (ret.) Jonathan D. Halevi

Arafat's death generated new hopes in the international community that a "window of opportunity" had now opened in the Middle East peace process. Meanwhile, Mahmud Abbas (Abu Mazen), who was elected to succeed Arafat as the PLO chairman, faces grave challenges to his leadership. Arafat left to his successors a regime that necessarily - and unlike his absolutist pattern of governing - will be based on a broad coalition between the various political and terrorist factions.

Only Buffer Zones Can Protect Israel

February 27, 2002 | Amb. Dore Gold

JERUSALEM -- It is doubtful that another case can be found in recent history of a nation that has been willing to take greater risks for peace than has Israel. Eight years ago, Israel embarked on a diplomatic experiment by agreeing to grant authority to the Palestine Liberation Organization, an organization whose founding charter called for Israel's annihilation, and to its leader, Yasir Arafat, in the disputed territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.